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Jason McCue - "Kingdom" from the 2022 album Screen, Turn On on Fluff & Gravy.

KEXP has long been supporters and fans of local artist Jason McCue. First bursting on the scene as the 2017 winner of Sound Off!, which sees artists under 21 showcase their talent for a shot at the coveted prize. Since then, he\\u2019s gone on to release three records, 2018\\u2019s Pangaea, Wasteland in 2019, and, most recently, Screen, Turn On.

Recorded during the pandemic, the record sees McCue grapple with his reliance on technology as the world became a more insular place. Our Song of the Day, \\u201cKingdom,\\u201d hones in on other vices that often sneak up and then terrorize those in vulnerable headspaces. In the song, our narrator experiences a heavy night of drinking, leaving them lost and bloody, with their lover pleading with them to stay the night before doing anything else wreckless.

In a tone that sounds as if Elliot Smith was reincarnated, McCue quavers \\u201cBut my baby said to me /Don\\u2019t you go home /Stay here with me /I know you\\u2019ve been drinking all night long /Don\\u2019t you go home\\u201d over an urgently strummed acoustic guitar while another electric guitar offers warbled flourishes. The intensity of the message and the vulnerability of the narrator\\u2019s position is felt through the constantly changing dynamics that slow down at the end with layered vocals mimicking the narrator\\u2019s fading mind and resolve.

Watch McCue\\u2019s KEXP in-studio performance of the song \\u201cOcean" and read the full post at KEXP.org.

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